By BETHANY ADAMS/Guest Columnist

College life is a huge adjustment. A lot of my friends, myself included, are having a difficult time adjusting to it.

We all have the same outlook on college. It’s so much better than high school in so many ways. It’s more individualized and the stress levels are so much lower than in previous years.

There isn’t any “drama,” because, unlike high school, not everyone there knows you and your entire life’s history. Your professors treat you like adults and it really is everything that we had been dreaming about for years.

However, actually having to live it is a lot different than just thinking about how awesome it will be.

This is the first time that I’ve actually had to spend hours studying. It’s tough to understand, because the actual class work is extremely easy for me, since all throughout high school I was in honors and AP classes, but the tests are rough. It definitely takes some getting used to.

The difficulty of my first few college exams was shocking.

While the anonymity of college is amazing and is what we were all waiting for, it’s difficult to accept and adjust to.

College life is what is so difficult though. My friends and I are split up for the first time in 12 years. We now have to make time to see each other, which is extremely difficult to do what with all of our lives basically being school and work.

That doesn’t even include church, social functions, time spent with boyfriends and whatever happens to be going on with our families at that time.

The whole “real world” idea is finally setting in for us. And it is not always a happy realization to come to.

While college is wonderful and going out in to the real world is completely necessary, it is a daunting process. I feel like it is necessary for people to understand that college students don’t just go out and party all the time.

We honestly just don’t have that luxury. So is college awesome and everything that we dreamed about? Yes, it is. We just didn’t necessarily think about all of the other “stuff” that would go along with it.

Bethany Adams is a graduate of Pelham High School. She is currently a freshman at the University of Montevallo.